Where enemies collaborate

Everyone should witness a rocket launch in their lifetime, says Yevgeniya Degtyarnikova as she watches the roll-out of a Soyuz from its hangar in the vast steppes of Kazakhstan.

“Unfortunately, my husband could not come, so I am fulfilling my dream and his,” said the 35 year old from the city of Tyumen in western Siberia. “I will bring my entire family here. This is the place everyone must visit,” she said at the Russian operated Baikonur spaceport.

Degtyarnikova, the owner of an amusement park, has forked out over 200 000 rubles (about R40 000) for a week-long tour to Baikonur which included viewing a rocket launch on Friday last week. She was one of a few hundred spectators who excitedly watched a Soyuz slowly emerge from its hangar, laid on its side.

The changing landscape of Baikonur Cosmodrome tourism

Russian, US and Kazakh flags could be seen fluttering in the wind nearby. Space is still a rare area of co-operation between Moscow and Washington, and earlier this month National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronaut Loral O’Hara travelled to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft alongside Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.

But as ties between Russia and the United States remain ruptured over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, the Baikonur cosmodrome has become increasingly off limits to foreigners. Western tourists used to regularly travel to Baikonur to watch rockets blast off into space. Now they have been replaced by well off tourists from Russia and other post-Soviet countries.

While Russian space agency Roscosmos declined to comment on the matter, one tour guide at Baikonur said she only worked with tourists from Russia and other countries of the former USSR. “Roscosmos does not allow other tourists in,” 28-year-old Maria Fateyeva said, citing the “political situation”.

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Changing tourist trends and perspectives

She said the restrictions saddened her, and that space and politics should not be mixed. Local tourism has increased in recent years, with the pandemic forcing many Russians to choose destinations across the former Soviet Union and Western sanctions complicating foreign travel. Nikolai Silyukov, who teaches aeromodelling, came to Baikonur with a group of pupils from the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

 “We’ve bought the complete package,” said the 25 year old, adding they had already visited local museums. His group prepared to take pictures of the moment a rocket spewed a torrent of flame.

“They say the launch lasts only a few seconds,” he said.  Yevgeny Zadoya, a 44-year-old tour guide from Saint Petersburg, is accompanied a dozen rich tourists.

They drove around in Porsches brought to Baikonur for the occasion and stayed in the spaceport’s most expensive hotel. He declined to give the cost of a tailor-made tour, only saying “it is very expensive”.

O’Hara said at the pre-launch press conference that she was not disappointed by the absence of Western tourists. “I think we’re surrounded by a lot of great people, and I have my family here in the audience, and it’s really special and amazing to have them here,” she said.

Russia’s Kononenko agreed that cosmonauts were more concerned about the presence of their loved ones at Baikonur. “It would be cool if the world’s spaceports were accessible to all people, and people from all over the world could come and watch the launch.

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